Ed Koch RIP

Video:

Edward I. Koch, the master showman of City Hall, who parlayed shrewd political instincts and plenty of chutzpah into three tumultuous terms as mayor of New York with all the tenacity, zest and combativeness that personified his city of golden dreams, died Friday morning at age 88.

Mr. Koch’s spokesman, George Arzt, said the former mayor died at 2 a.m. from congestive heart failure. He was being treated at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia hospital.

Mr. Koch had experienced coronary and other medical problems since leaving office in 1989. But he had been in relatively good health despite — or perhaps because of — his whirlwind life as a television judge, radio talk-show host, author, law partner, newspaper columnist, movie reviewer, professor, commercial pitchman and political gadfly.

He will be, however, remembered for this:

Out of office, Mr. Koch remained influential in New York politics. He crossed party lines to support Mr. Giuliani in the 1993 mayoral election, an endorsement crucial to Mr. Dinkins’s defeat. But Mr. Koch later turned against Mr. Giuliani, flaying him as “a good mayor but a terrible person” and refusing to endorse him for a second term.

Mr. Koch endorsed Mr. Bloomberg’s successful races for mayor as a Republican in 2001 and 2005, calling him about “as Republican as I am.” (Mr. Bloomberg later refashioned himself as an independent.) And when Mr. Bloomberg engineered a legislative finesse of term-limits laws to run for a third term in 2009, Mr. Koch backed him and called for an end to term limits.

In presidential races, Mr. Koch went back and forth. He supported the losing Democratic ticket of Al Gore and Joseph I. Lieberman in 2000, but joined the Bush-Cheney re-election bandwagon in 2004 and promoted the Republican National Convention in New York, urging New Yorkers to “make nice” to conventioneers. By 2008, he was back with the Democrats, supporting Hillary Rodham Clinton’s bid for the nomination and, when she lost, switching to Mr. Obama.

Now, I do not normally speak ill of the dead; but I will say this: Mayor Koch switched to a Republican stance, because of terrorism and what it did to NYC — that ,I fully understand. I was one of the many who watched 9/11 unfold on television in 2001 on CNN. I found it to be totally unbelievable that we were witnessing an attack on American soil. It was worse than pearl harbor. At the time, I was not really politically active. But, I found the Democrats response to 9/11 and the subsequent cries for “no war” to be sickening. At the time, I felt that we should bombed the entire Arab world for what happened on that day.

Koch also understood that what happen on 9/11 was a horrible thing and when the Democrats decided to play the role of “lets all just get along,” Koch switched sides. It earned him the praise of the people of NYC at the time; but it earned him the scorn of the political elite of the Democratic Party.

As for the man’s sexuality, I could honestly give two flips about that; if he was gay at all. You would have never known it about him, he never looked the part at all. Except for that high-pitched Curly Howard sounding voice of his — which is very common in that ethnic group.

Put very simply; the man was a leader, something that New York City needed at the time; and he did well at leading the city during a very tough time. One thing he said in that video up there, that I posted; which I found to be very poignant is “You don’t spend money that you do not have!” I only wish that our leaders in Washington D.C. would truly learn that lesson; before America goes into a meltdown. My friends, that is not a Republican or a Conservative position; that is a position of common sense. Something that is sorely lacking in this modern day and age.

Rest in peace Koch, you damned well earned it.

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How ironic is it?

That the family of this kid writes this below?:

Aaron’s death is not simply a personal tragedy. It is the product of a criminal justice system rife with intimidation and prosecutorial overreach. Decisions made by officials in the Massachusetts U.S. Attorney’s office and at MIT contributed to his death. The US Attorney’s office pursued an exceptionally harsh array of charges, carrying potentially over 30 years in prison, to punish an alleged crime that had no victims. Meanwhile, unlike JSTOR, MIT refused to stand up for Aaron and its own community’s most cherished principles.

via Official Statement from the family and partner of Aaron Swartz – Remember Aaron Swartz.

But, yet, progressives still want and advocate for big Government. This just does not make any sense to me, at all. When will the progressives finally wake and realize that the Government, is not your friend at all. Most likely, when it is too late and ALL of our freedoms are taken from us.

Others: Associated Press, Firedoglake, GigaOM, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Guardian, Taylor Marsh, The Moderate Voice, Politico, Unhandled Exception, Wonkblog, BuzzMachine, Making Light, Boing Boing and TechCrunch, Crooks and Liars, The Adventures …, Mashable!, Blue Mass Group and The Moderate Voice

It must be nice….

Looks like David Gregory of MSNBC will not be charged with a crime for displaying a high-capacity magazine on TV. William Jacobson at Legal Insurrection has the scoop:

Just released by D.C. Attorney General there will be no prosecution of David Gregory despite a finding that there was a clear violation of the law (emphasis mine):

Having carefully reviewed all of the facts and circumstances of this matter, as it does in every case involving firearms-related offenses or any other potential violation of D.C. law within our criminal jurisdiction, OAG has determined to exercise its prosecutorial discretion to decline to bring criminal charges against Mr. Gregory, who has no criminal record, or any other NBC employee based on the events associated with the December 23,2012 broadcast. OAG has made this determination, despite the clarity of the violation of this important law, because under all of the circumstances here a prosecution would not promote public safety in the District of Columbia nor serve the best interests of the people of the District to whom this office owes its trust. Influencing our judgment in this case, among other things, is our recognition that the intent of the temporary possession and short display of the magazine was to promote the First Amendment purpose of informing an ongoing public debate about firearms policy in the United States, especially while this subject was foremost in the minds of the public following the previously mentioned events in Connecticut and the President’s speech to the nation about them. There were, however, other legal means available to demonstrate the point and to pursue this line of questioning with the guest that were suggested to NBC and that could have and should have been pursued.

OAG also appreciates that the magazine was immediately returned to the source that NBC understood to be its lawful owner outside of the District and that the magazine in question, with NBC’s assistance, has been surrendered to MPD. OAG also recognizes the cooperation NBC has provided in the investigation of this matter.

Proving that if you rich, white, liberal and you happen to be friends with the DC attorney general; you can pretty much do what you darned well please.

Unbelievable. 🙄 Whatever happened to rule of law? Whatever happened to the justice system in this Country? …and they wonder why people go on these shooting sprees because they are simply pissed off at the Government?

Others: Outside the Beltway, Erik Wemple, American Power, NewsBusters.org, The Gateway Pundit,Mediaite, Power Line, Washington Times and The Daily Caller (Via Memeorandum)

Megan McArdle is absolutely correct

There is really little we can really do.

I gave her hell once, because I didn’t get the humor. But, she’s right here. I just hope the Republicans and Democrats are listening.

The only sad thing is, that she is actually having to explain all that to the masses. What does that say about America? 😯

I might not be on good terms with the right, but this is wrong

These screen-caps come via Freedom Outpost:

On the NRA:

On the Second Amendment:

More here at the Daily Caller. Freedom Outpost has a good write-up on this too.

Okay now, Listen: I admit it, after Governor Snyder’s little slime-ball move in lying to people like me, I have been on the outs with the Conservative movement and the Republican Party. But this stuff above is just uncalled for. If this is the left’s idea of impressing independents; you all have long way to go get my friends. Wishing death on people is no way to get your message across. Furthermore, repealing the second amendment? Are you people serious?!?! Here is a dose of reality for you, it will never happen. Not in America. This is not Britain, we will always have guns here. Now deal with it and move on.

Not only that, but how about mustering up some of the outrage towards the killer’s Mother, who was the one who bought the weapons, knowing full darned well that her son was mentally ill? She is the one to blame really, the young man who pulled the trigger is ultimately the person who carries the blame. But the Mother of the trigger man shares that blame too.

Horse-hockey!

More stupid from the left:

When Congress picks a fight with the President, no matter who the President or who leads the Congress, the President usually wins in the public eye.

Prediction: if the President plays chicken on this tax and spending issue and doesn’t flinch, he wins one way or the other politically.

via Congress & President Playing Chicken | The Moderate Voice.

Bullcrap. The President, nor the Republicans are going to look good in the eyes of the people; whose taxes are going to go through the roof!

Morons, I swear.

BP should tell the USA, “Hasta la vista!”

Because this is nothing more than this Presidential Administration trying to run this oil company out of business:

WASHINGTON — Government officials have temporarily banned BP from new federal contracts because of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon blowout and oil spill that killed 11 workers and polluted hundreds of miles of Gulf of Mexico shoreline.

The Environmental Protection Agency said Wednesday that it was taking the action because of BP’s “lack of business integrity” demonstrated by the accident and the company’s inability to curb the flow of oil into the gulf. BP pleaded guilty earlier this month to federal criminal charges arising from the disaster and agreed to pay $4.5 billion, including $1.26 billion in criminal penalties.

The suspension will be effective “until the company can provide sufficient evidence to E.P.A. demonstrating that it meets federal business standards,” the agency said in a statement. The action does not affect the company’s existing federal contracts.

BP had no immediate comment on the announcement.

The British oil company is one of the American government’s largest contractors, 45th with $1.47 billion in federal business in 2011, according to a ranking compiled by the General Services Administration. The company’s biggest customer is the United States Department of Defense, to which it provides more than $1 billion a year in fuel.

via United States Temporarily Suspends BP From New Contracts – NYTimes.com.

If I were BP oil, I would tell the EPA and the Obama Administration, “When your reign of terror is over, we will come back. Until then, we are out of here.”

Because it is quite obvious to this writer that the Obama Administration trying to break this oil company’s back or force them to leave the Country. Therefore, I would give them what they wanted and I would end the North American Operations of BP and sell off all the American company assets to the highest bidder and get out of the American oil business until the end of Obama’s term.

If Obama is that desperate to see the American oil industry handed over to his Arab friends, than I would allow that to happen; so that Americans can see just what kind of person that he really is. Which is someone who cares about American workers and America itself, as he does about his own socks.

Idiot of the week

This guy, as described below, gets the award:

It’s become a tradition on every holiday that somewhere in the country a taxpayer supported university professor will come forth to trash one of our American traditions and this holiday season we were treated to a claim that Thanksgiving is really just a celebration of “genocide” created by “Nazis.”

A long-time, extreme left-winger named Robert Jensen, a taxpayer supported journalism professor at the University of Texas at Austin, felt Thanksgiving eve was the perfect time to unleash his latest anti-American screed on the radical website Alternet. Titled “No Thanks for Thanksgiving,” Jensen claimed that this most gentle of holidays is really nothing but a celebration of genocide sponsored by Americans who are little different than Nazis.

To Jensen, Thanksgiving isn’t a day to give thanks for what we have, it isn’t a spiritual day to reflect on one’s good fortune, it is instead a “white-supremacist holiday” that would be better spent in a “day of mourning” for the “genocide” evil whites perpetrated against America’s native people.

Leave aside Jensen’s racist tendency of assuming every Indian tribe is just like the next — some Indian tribes welcomed and worked with the European “invaders,” as Jensen put it — he also illegitimately claims that the U.S. is an “empire.” It never has been

via University Prof: Thanksgiving is a Nazi Holiday | Wizbang.

Click here to get read the idiot’s diatribe against Thanksgiving. and believe me; I use the word “idiot”, because I am too nice and really do not like write profanity on this blog, unless it is absolutely warranted, like in this case here

Bill Quick Says:

Since he seems to hate everything that he is – white, male, American – I suggest that the only rational solution for him is to shove a gun down his gullet and pull the trigger.

If he’s unclear on the mechanics of such an act, I’m sure they are any number of volunteers willing to help him out. To end his pain, you know.

Amen to that, seeing he hates America and all, I am all for ending his suffering. Now, before any of the idiot liberals that happen to read this blog; lose their minds, this is sarcasm. One point that I really think really needs to made is this one, and Warner Todd Huston makes it so very well:

Good thing he makes his living off a racist, capitalist, woman-hating country, isn’t it?

On the Taxpayer’s dime, no less. This is what your tax dollars pay for; an American-hating liberal, who thinks we’re all Nazi’s.

Unbelievable. 🙄

Audio: James Dobson asks, “Where have the GOP’s Values Gone?”

This is a question that I have asked myself.

The Audio:

Part 1:

[podcast]http://drjamesdobson.org/11.15.12-FINAL.mp3[/podcast]

Part 2:

[podcast]http://drjamesdobson.org/11.16.12-FINAL.mp3[/podcast]

The Story via WND.COM:

Dr. James Dobson

The 2012 election was an open door for the GOP to lead America back to its roots in faith and morality, and the Republicans were AWOL, says Dr. James Dobson, founder of Family Talk and a brand new political outreach arm called Family Talk Action.

“I waited throughout the campaign for Mitt Romney to declare himself, to at least identify with the moral issues that are before us. He would not touch them,” Dobson said on a two-part radio program in which Penny Nance, head of Concerned Women for America, joined.

Dobson, whose advice about parenting, child-rearing, marriage and faith has guided millions of Americans and whose counsel on family matters has been sought by presidents, used two programs on his regular radio program, “Dr. James Dobson’s Family Talk” that were sponsored by his political action branch to comment on the re-election of Barack Obama.

He noted he and a handful of other conservative leaders, including Tony Perkins of Family Research Council, Gary Bauer and Gen. William Boykin, had met with the GOP candidate to encourage him to address social issues important to Christians across the nation.

“We begged him to deal with eight issues. We listed first the sanctity of life, marriage, religious life, ‘Don’t Ask,’ ENDA, on it went,” Dobson said. “We said we really are not here to jump on you, but evangelicals are not excited about your candidacy, not energized. … You could connect if you’ll even mention these things.

“He nodded and he smiled and he was gracious as he always is, and he went out and was silent,” Dobson said.

Dr. Dobson goes on to talk about how the Democrats have shifted on Abortion, Israel and many other topics. I here at this blog wrote about that little uprising myself. I have noticed one thing myself here; that Conservatives are saying that the keeping of the social platform in the Republican Party is going to be death knell for the Conservative movement.

I have one answer to that little idiotic notion — try winning elections without us folks. Fiscal conservatism is great, but without God, the Republican Party, much less the conservative movement will never survive. Again, what good is telling people that rights come, not from the Government — but from God, if you are not willing to stand for that God? It makes no sense and it will never work.

Mitt Romney’s downfall might have very well been his refusal to get tough on social issues. There is also too: Mitt Romney was a Mormon and quite frankly, the rest of the Christian world does not consider Mormonism to be true Christianity. This stance in the evangelical Christian circles is softening a bit. However, in the fundamentalist Christian circles it is very strong, I know this to true fact myself.

I also would like to make the following observation: It is not lost on me why the Conservative movement is moving away from the social conservative side of things. This is left-overs from the Neoconservative, Jewish-controlled, GOP of the George W. Bush-era. It is well-known, that according some of the staffers that worked in the Bush White House that most Conservative Christians were seen by the Bush White House as useful idiots. This could be why God allowed America to be attacked on 9/11. I mean, the Lord could have said, “Forsake me, eh? Well, how do you like this?” and we were hit. I am just speculating. But it does make sense to me.

In contrast, the old school, Paleoconservatives are mostly known to be devote Christians who do take the Word of God; that is the Bible, literally. This is unlike President Bush, who admitted in a exit interview, that he did not take the Bible literally. You notice that President Bush did not admit that, until he was safely away from every being reelected.

In Closing: If the GOP continues down this path and rejects social Conservatism. It will go the way of the Whig Party. Because social Conservatives will not back a candidate that is not interested in being tough on social issues. It is just that simple. I do not believe that they will start their own political party; that has been tried before and failed. I simply believe that the conservative Christians will stay home.

This is something that the Republican Party and we as Conservative Americans cannot afford.

Speaking of Paltry: Al Gore’s Current TV goes up for sale

In this posting, I am going to violate my own advice that I gave out. Heck, I am a Conservative Blogger after all! Hee hee

Speaking of paltry amounts, Al Gore’s Current TV is going up for sale. The New York Post has the story:

Current TV, the ratings-challenged cable network started by former Vice President Al Gore, has put itself up for sale, The Post has learned.

“Current has been approached many times by media companies interested in acquiring our company,” CEO Joel Hyatt told The Post. “This year alone, we have had three inquiries. As a consequence, we thought it might be useful to engage expertise to help us evaluate our strategic options.”

Current is still interviewing investment banks and has yet to launch a formal sales process, said one source.

The service, launched in August 2005 after Gore had begun his crusade against global warming, has churned through programming and personnel as it tried to find its voice.

The channel started out as youth-centric and user-generated before going heavier on news and documentaries. Its latest incarnation is as a left-leaning cable news network, à la MSNBC.

In January 2011, it hired former “Countdown” anchor Keith Olbermann, after MSNBC canceled his contract. Then in March, Current also cut Olbermann loose.

The network now airs such shows as “Joy Behar: Say Anything!” and “Viewpoint with Eliot Spitzer.”

Current, owned by Gore, Hyatt and some private backers, is in about 60 million homes, which could make it valuable to buyers looking for cable network distribution.

It gets about 12 cents a subscriber from pay-TV operators that carry it, or around $82 million last year, according to SNL Kagan. Ad revenue last year was estimated at just $16.9 million.

$16.9 million in Ad Revenue??!?! That’s it? Now, compared to a wee little website like mine, that is a whole lot of money. However, in the grand scheme of things, 16.9 million is quite paltry for revenue for a website of that caliber.

Now I could try and be charitable and say it is because of the economy or a few other clever excuses. However, because this is Al Gore and his brand of idiot progressivism; I am just going to tell the inconvenient truth here. This website is up for sale, because progressivism sucks, as does the idiotic global warming hysteria horse shit, that Al Gore is infamous for peddling. Also, ol’ Joey Hyatt is a bit of an a-hole too, just ask Keith Olbermann, who bolted from that sinking ship, when he realized he was working with a bunch of unprofessional idiots.

So, yeah, I am taking a bit of a perverse pleasure in hearing this news and blogging about it. You could say, that it warms the cackles of my rather cold Conservative heart. Devil

Yesterday: Air America

Today: Current TV

Tomorrow: The Democratic Party

It can be done, all we have to do is try.